Knoxville’s David Keith Receives FBI Award

The Knoxville division of the FBI nominated Mr. David Keith as the recipient of the 2008 Director’s Community Leadership Award based on Mr. Keith’s commitment and support to numerous communities through his support of the National Association to Protect Children (www.protect.org).

For many years, Mr. Keith has been an advocate for children, starting with his role as an Ambassador for Child Health USA in 1990.  In his current role as a National Advisory Board Member of the National Association to Protect Children, Mr. Keith is dedicated to building a strong national agenda for protecting our nation’s children.  He is committed to building a powerful, nonpartisan force for the protection of children from abuse, exploitation, and neglect.  Mr. Keith’s demonstrated commitment to the citizens of East Tennessee and children all across our county make him an obvious choice for this year’s DCLA.

Other accomplishments for Mr. Keith include the following:

2003—Began working with Attorney General Randy Nichols’ office researching and structuring ways to make life more challenging for child predators;

2004—Played an integral role in passing legislation which allows prior convictions to be submitted as evidence in trials involving sex crimes against children (the Bill had been in committee for eight years prior to Mr. Keith’s involvement);

2005—Through his work with Childhelp USA, he was a strong advocate for the creation of the “Haley Law” Bill which raised most child abuse charges to felonies, added new charges to the code for aggravated child neglect and endangerment, and added mandatory life sentences for anyone convicted of child torture in the state of Tennessee;

2006—Helped coordinate information from the Knoxville Police Department’s (KPD) Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services to create a multi-faceted bill to strengthen existing loopholes in Tennessee criminal statues related to Internet crimes against children;

2006/07—Coordinated with KPD ICAC personnel and ICE personnel to create program goals and objectives combined with testimony from at least 27 federal hearings to form the nucleus of the federal War on Predators Bill;

2007—Helped secure additional state funding for two additional ICAC Task Forces in Middle and West Tennessee.  Also secured unanimous resolutions from the Tennessee state legislature formally supporting the Federal Child Predators Bill and requested the first Federal Forensics Lab to be located in Knoxville, Tennessee, dedicated to child exploitation on the Internet;

2007—Successfully lobbied California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and received $1 million from his budget to supplement the four California ICAC teams, thereby doubling their existing budget;

2007/08—Currently lobbying in Washington, D.C. for federal War on Predators Bill, a $1 billion initiative which would add 1,000 new FBI and ICE Special Agents, at least 1 additional ICAC per state, 10 dedicated forensics labs, and 200 dedicated federal prosecutors.